Brockhouse wary of capping city manager’s salary

Despite his fierce criticism of the city manager’s salary, Councilman Greg Brockhouse is wary of a proposed amendment to cap it at 10 times that of the lowest-paid city employee.

Photo: Ray Whitehouse /For the San Antonio Express-News

Of all 11 members of City Council, Greg Brockhouse would seem the most likely to give his full-throated support for all three of the fire union’s recently delivered scorched-earth petitions to amend the city charter.

Spoiler alert: He does not.

All would drain power from municipal government, making it easier to put city ordinances to a public vote; barring the city from going to court over labor agreements; and capping the city manager’s salary at 10 times that of the lowest-paid full-time city employee.

Before Brockhouse was elected last year to represent District 6, he worked as a consultant for both the fire and police unions, launching broadsides against city initiatives and officials as both organizations fought for leverage in contract negotiations.

And no official received more of Brockhouse’s well-compensated ire than City Manager Sheryl Sculley.

The San Antonio Police Officers Association, for instance, paid Brockhouse $5,000 a month for more than two years, in part to push back against Sculley’s assertion that public-safety costs could completely consume the city’s general-fund budget by 2031. To deflect the issue, Brockhouse worked with a marketing firm to produce TV ads excoriating Sculley’s salary.

“New from City Hall,” one blared, “City Manager Sheryl Sculley is already the highest paid city manager in Texas. Soon, she’ll be making more than even the president of the United States.”

Brockhouse’s disdain for Sculley’s compensation — the city manager’s base pay increased to $475,000 this year — even predates his association with the unions.

“You can go as far back to 2013, when I ran for city council,” Brockhouse said. “I’ve talked about it in 2012 and 2013. My concern with the city manager’s compensation has nothing to do with the police officers and firefighters. I was opposed to that before I had any relationship with SAPOA or the firefighters.”

And yet, Brockhouse has serious reservations about the fire union’s determination to cap a future city manager’s salary.

Last week, as fire union president Chris Steele held a press conference outside City Hall arguing for the amendments, Brockhouse told me he supported the two other potential changes to the charter (making it easier to put ordinances to a public vote and barring the city from going to court over labor agreements). And he stressed that he had no problem with the union’s collection of signatures calling for a November charter-amendment election.

“I support their right to do exactly what they’re doing,” Brockhouse said.

Brockhouse, though, was uncomfortable with the proposed amendment that would cap the city manager’s salary and limit the tenure of the city’s top employee to eight years. (The change would not affect Sculley’s own salary; it would take effect after her departure.)

“My concerns are: Are we going to be able to attract quality talent?” Brockhouse said then.

On Monday, Brockhouse elaborated: He wants more facts. For instance, he doesn’t know exactly how much the lowest-paid full-time city employee earns.

(That’s $29,640 a year, according to city spokesman Jeff Coyle. Maintenance workers and library aides are among those who earn that amount.)

Capping the city manager’s salary also could hamper negotiations with potential hires, Brockhouse said.

“I would want flexibility as an elected official to make the right hire,” he said.

Maybe the problem is Steele doesn’t respect elected officials — not even Brockhouse. Outside City Hall, Steele referred to the entire council as “11 people who don’t represent properly the citizens.”

When I brought that up to Brockhouse, the typically loquacious councilman seemed at a loss for words.

“Yeah,” he said. “Yeah, I mean … I, you know, I respect that organization and I respect Chris. And he has his feelings about it. … I disagree with it. I think what he’s trying to say is, the council as a whole doesn’t represent the city of San Antonio.”

Brockhouse added, “I’m part of the body. I’m part of the city council.”